Detectives in Sheffield say they understand why people are worried following five stabbings in three days but have reassured people the city is safe.

Det Supt Una Jennings, force lead for knife crime, said the force had just announced a new three-year knife strategy and working in schools across the city to encourage people to Drop the Knife.

Det Supt Una Jennings.

It comes after a 22-year-old man was stabbed to deathh outside the Cineworld cinema at Centertainment on Friday and two other men – aged 29 and 31 – were knifed in Hillsborough in the early hours of Sunday.

Two men were also stabbed in Aston and Swallownest on Sunday night but Det Supt Jennings said the majority of stabbings in the city were not gang-related.

She said: “We don’t see the same correlation in Sheffield as some of our other big cities. Less than six per cent of all our knife-enabled crime is gang related however the gang-related crime that we see tends to be the more serious knife-enabled crime, which tends to be more serious injurues, life-changing disfigurements or murder.

“The correlation between gangs and knife-enabled crime in Sheffield tends to be how serious the offences are as oppose to the volume.”

Det Supt Jennings said she understood why there was increased fear among the public following the rise in the violence.

She added: “We have a number of families who are traumatised and a huge amount of tragedy in our city over the past few days.

“Sheffield continues to be a very safe city and we have a very clear, practical plan about what we are doing about knife-enabled crime together with the local authority, in education and health.

“We know what we are doing. We believe we are doing the right thing and we believe we are investing in the right areas.

“It is about early identification, intervention and prevention because the reality is by the time it comes to me as a police woman, everything else has already failed so the conversations that we need to have are in our homes, schools and with our young men so that they understand the correlation between carrying a knife and becoming a victim of knife crime.”